SEC Charges Co-Founders of San Francisco Biotech Company With $60 Million Fraud

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Jessica Richman and Zachary Apte, co-founders of uBiome Inc., a San Francisco-based private medical testing company, with defrauding investors out of $60 million by falsely portraying uBiome as a successful start-up with a proven business model and strong prospects for future growth. The SEC's complaint alleges that Richman, uBiome's CEO, and Apte, its Chief Scientific Officer, raised funds from investors – millions of dollars of which went to Richman and Apte - by painting a false picture of uBiome as a rapidly growing company, which Richman told investors was "inventing the microbiome industry" and making "products that improve people's lives." According to the complaint, Richman and Apte portrayed the company as having a strong track record of receiving health insurance reimbursement for its clinical tests, which purportedly could detect microorganisms and assist in diagnosing disease.